Five Frugal Things -- Lighting Globes & Abandoned Receipts
1) I did a big ol' grocery shop at Winco, although I was in too big of a hurry afterwards to photograph my haul. I spent $101.34 on 42 items.
For those who don't have a Winco Foods in your area, it's a no frills employee-owned chain with a huge bulk food section. One example of how amazing this is -- I filled my Bonne Maman jar with dried oregano for just 65¢!
I also found two dimes and a penny in the Coinstar machine, as well as a penny on the ground. Added to my paltry Found Change Challenge jar!
2) I picked up three receipts from empty shopping carts to scan into the Fetch app. One of them earned 790 points, which was a fun surprise. My receipts almost never earn more than the 25 point minimum as I rarely buy big corporate brands.
3) I also stopped at the nearby Goodwill and bought a 99¢ Anthropologie drinking glass, (now listed on eBay for $25) a $2.99 vintage lighting globe, which I'll sell to a local business, likely for thirty dollars. Lastly I bought a $1.99 iPhone case, which I'll actually return as it's not quite the right fit for my iPhone 14.
4) I finished listening to the amazing but emotionally intense Eleanor Olyphant is Completely Fine, and immediately downloaded a lighthearted audiobook as a palate cleanser. Of course, through the library's free Libby app.
5) I listed the American Girl doll for $50 on eBay that I picked up at Goodwill for $6.99 the other day. I included an A.G. branded skirt and sweater from my freebie stash, as well as the off brand outfit she came in. I also combed out her hair and wiped her down.
Click HERE to see the listing.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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This blog post contains an eBay referral link.
1. I got my 1000$ deductible back from my insurance co. My FL condo got flooded from the upstairs unit. They were uninsured. The insurance co. told me they would take action to recover their expense. My unit was repaired but it was a major mess.
2. Found a quarter and a few pennies in the Mc Donald drive thru.
3. Got a 1$ iced coffee at McDonalds as a frugal treat.
4. Will attend a spring luncheon at my school for retirees. The program is usually boring but the lunch is usually good. I invited a colleague of mine to be my guest. Plus the location is close for both of us.
5. Went to the bakery thrift store to get bread today. It was rather picked over. I found enough to buy 7$ worth. If you buy 7$ worth you get a free item. Wednesday is senior day so I got 10% off my purchase. I got 9 items for 7.47$. Sliced sandwich bread, English muffins, bagel thins, protein bagels. A good deal & I won't have to buy bread for a long time.
1. I timed myself while my husband was on his lunch break and cleaned my very desperate shower with vinegar and dawn. Took me about 15-18 minutes from start to finish, including rinsing off after. Will I learn anything from this? No. No I will not. But now it's done!
2. I logged into my Old Navy app and was assaulted with notices about several sales and clearances happening. I checked my cart since we tend to leave things in it for long period of time to see if we really need the items. The only thing worth getting in the cart was a linen shirt for my husband that was half off. I need a few tank tops as mine have been used and abused for quite some time. We've been slowly moving our clothing to less synthetic choices and I was able to find 100% cotton tanks in the men's section and ordered a 3 pack. We ended up paying around $34.50 for five items, less than the regular cost of the shirt, and got free shipping!
3. We're down to our last slice of bread today, (where do they put it???) so I convinced my kids to eat quesadillas for lunch. I have a masters in at-home toddler marketing.
4. Tonight is dairy free pizza with homemade sauce. Our oldest daughter doesn't eat pizza so we'll have to get creative for her, but our youngest will at least eat the toppings off of the pizza and leave the crusts.
5. My husband and youngest daughter have birthdays very close to each other and both are coming up. He told me he just wants to relax and maybe spend time with some friends on his, sounds cheap to me! Her party is going to be a little less relaxing, but what *IS* relaxing with a toddler? I'll take my wins where I can get them!
That's a great price for Oregano. A whole jar full, wow.
1. I combined errands and dropped off a couple library books on my way to an appointment.
2. I packaged up my three Ebay sales from yesterday using recycled packing materials. I ordered a pick up from the post office to save myself the trip.
3. I bought a replacement Pyrex lid at an estate sale and a new king size down alternative blanket for a xmas present
We’re heading to visit my father in law tomorrow, so my frugal goal for today is a fridge-clean-out dinner tonight and breakfast for tomorrow.
I’m using all of our veggies that won’t keep to make bibimbap- carrots, cucumber, scallions, and spinach, bulked up with some rehydrated shiitakes and a fried egg of course.
Breakfast will be leftover kale and romesco from last nights dinner atop avocado toast and eggs.
My other frugal win: the gift I’m bringing my FIL is a loaf of homemade seeded multigrain sourdough. He’s a health lover, a bread lover, and frugal himself, so I know it’s a gift he’ll love.
The doll looks so pretty now that she's cleaned up and has her hair fixed. And I love your little side hustle with lighting globes.
Today I stayed home and did magic with fire, also known as cooking. Made crock pot barbecued pork roast with carrot chunks cooked in the barbecue sauce and baked a potato half the size of my head for a substantial lunch. Also made a pan of from scratch gluten-free brownies topped with chopped walnuts. For my breakfasts, I made 18 lemon-blueberry bran muffins using frozen lemon juice/zest prepared a few weeks ago. Jazzed up a store brand cheese pizza with some pepperoni and a little more grated cheese -- yum!
This week I bought some store brand air foam insoles on sale to revive two pairs of shoes. Did some hand sewing to get the inside placket on a button-up blouse to lie flat. It's a pretty blouse but the wonky placket was keeping me from wearing it.
A series of frugal fails ended up with a very frugal win. My landline phone was dead (I thought) so first I replaced the cord that goes into the splitter (would have been a frugal win had it worked but alas there was no joy in Mudville!!) Whar confused the heck out of me was that my internet modem was plugged into the same splitter and worked really well. So next I buy a relatively cheap phone at Wally World (the original phone had belonged to my mother who has been gone since 2018). New phone with the replacement cord and fresh batteries, still NADA. I figured out that the old phone needed new batteries too but still no dial tone (the display said 0 calls LOL). I finally gave up and scheduled an appointment with Century Link. They came out today and discovered that the jack was corroded. Replacement jack for free> I never thought that I would be so happy to hear a dial tone!!
Hurray!
I am happy to hear of someone else with a landline. The rudely aggressive marketing of Brightspeed, (replaced CenturyLink in our area), to switch to VOIP is rude enough to make me stay with the actual landline until it is truly no longer available, which is another year or so.
1. Husband went to the Minnesota Twins baseball game today with a friend and saved 25 percent ($6) on his burrito bowl and pop since his friend is a season ticket holder.
2. Pleased that the only food waste we had in the first week after my fall was some cilantro.
3. Decided not to buy annuals, herbs or veggie plants this year since I won't be able to maintain them and my husband needs to focus on other priorities. Nor are we going to invest in the three large decorative pots we were planning to buy for the front of our house.
4. Friend came over to walk our dog and brought a box of dog treats, a homemade loaf of bread, and more reading material.
5. Cancelled my free fitness classes in case any of them had a wait-list, which also alerted my teacher to why I'm not attending.